Foreign investment in Kuwait to top US$10 billion

Kuwait's minister of trade and industry: Foreign investment in Kuwait could top the US$10 billion mark over the next year.

Foreign investment in Kuwait could top the US$10 billion mark over the next year, according to the country’s minister of trade and industry. Abdullah Al Tawil claims the majority of outside investment will end up in the multi-billion-dollar Olefins II project in the petrochemicals field by Equate Petrochemical, a joint venture between Kuwait and Dow Chemical. “We have seen a lot of money coming into Kuwait from foreign investors,” said Al Tawil. “At this stage we are talking about US$10 billion that we expect to see flow in,” he added. The latest figure cited by the minister tops the few billion dollars in foreign direct investment that Tawil said had been attracted by Kuwait by last June. Besides petrochemicals, around US$2.5 billion has been earmarked for several factories and two electricity generation stations. “We are moving in the right direction and opening a lot of sectors for foreign investors,” explained Al Tawil. “One of the power stations will be ready soon and another one is in the pipeline. Many of the factories are also being established now,” he added. The government of Kuwait is currently undertaking on a host of multi-billion-dollar infrastructure projects, an economic liberalisation programme and a host of political and economic reforms. “We are encouraging investors by opening all the sectors for them. We are telling them exactly what sectors they can go into,” said Al Tawil. “We are also giving them 10 year tax holidays and helping them in every possible way that we can,” he concluded.